How the Broadway Diner goes beyond the Pink
By Tom Paolella
Editor’s Note: The Two River Times™ is a 2012 sponsor of “Paint The Town Pink,” an initiative presented by Riverview Medical Center to encourage annual mammography. Each week through May 12, the TRT™ will feature stories and blogs provided by Riverview Medical Center to encourage women 40 and older to have their annual mammograms.
For more than 15 years, Rocco Coviello and Robert Russo, co-owners of the Broadway Diner in Red Bank have been committed to providing area residents with stellar food and great service to match. What many prospective patrons may not realize is that the Broadway Diner is also committed to encouraging the importance of annual mammography.
When Ellen Gamble, general manager of the Broadway Diner, was approached five years ago to get involved with Paint the Town Pink, a light bulb went off. “I have always felt that women are always so busy taking care of other people in their lives they sometimes put their own health on the back burner,” says Ellen.
Simply getting involved was not enough for Ellen and the Broadway Diner. Now in its sixth year, the support of the diner is inspiring to many other businesses throughout the surrounding communities. Over the course of the last five years, the Broadway Diner has received yearly recognition for “Most Pledges Collected” and “The Pinkest Window” contest, winning four out of the last five years.
In addition, over the last five years the Broadway Diner has collected more than 1,000 pledges from women, vowing to get their annual mammogram and has collected more than $7,500 to support the Pink Fund, which provides uninsured or underinsured women in the community with free mammography.
“I hate to even admit it but when we were first approached by Riverview and Paint the Town Pink to be involved in this amazing initiative, I felt like a complete hypocrite,” says Ellen. “Here we are telling women just how important annual mammography was and I hadn’t been for my own mammogram in more than 10 years…Seeing the thousands of community members rallying behind this initiative truly inspired me, and I have been going for my yearly mammogram at the Women’s Center at Riverview ever since.”
The Broadway Diner not only leads the charge in pledge collections, but also goes above and beyond when it comes to Pink in-store activities. “Starting well before May, each February we reach out to local businesses to get gift donations to be used for numerous in-store contests and games during Pink week,” says Ellen. For 2012, the Broadway Diner will be raffling off 25 luxury gift baskets, holding a tricky tray outside the diner on May 5, featuring an ultimate raffle in which the diner staff actually buys bicycles, iPods and other prizes out of their own pockets, and will be holding a Pink Tag Sale in the driveway of the diner to raise monies for the Pink Fund.
“All of our patrons get so excited each year when they see the pink flags going up,” says Ellen. “As a local business, it’s our way of showing women in the community just how much we care for them, and we plan on continuing this tradition as Paint the Town Pink gets even bigger and pinker in the years to come!”
Paint the Town Pink 2012 runs from May 4-12. For more information about Paint the Town Pink
visit the website at www.PainttheTownPink.com and be sure to follow Paint the Town Pink on Facebook to see highlights of this year’s campaign and for a complete list of events and activities.
